Ride with RENEW was a huge success!

The first ever RENEW Wisconsin bike event occurred over the weekend of September 28 and 29 and was a major inspirational and fundraising success.

RENEW would like to thank all of you who sent your support and donations to us for our Ride with RENEW bike tour event. 161 of you donated over $8,000 to support this event and work toward a clean, renewable energy future in Wisconsin. We blew way past our goal of raising $5,000, which two of our major donors John and Mary Frantz had generously agreed to match. We were shocked and humbled when John and Mary offered to match the $8,000 all of you had donated, bringing our total to over $16,000!

Here are some of the highlights:

We wanted to share with you some of the highlights of the bike ride, so we created a photo album on our Google+ page.

RENEW’s new executive director, Tyler Huebner, initiated RENEW’s first 100 mile bike ride event to emphasize RENEW’s campaigns, fundraise to support these campaigns, get some exercise, and be part of an adventure. We hit the mark on all of these attributes! In addition, Tyler started this bike ride to get 100 Monthly Sustainers of RENEW Wisconsin, and set the 100 miles as a benchmark to coincide with this goal. We’ve already got 14 Monthly Sustainers: join us as a Monthly Sustainer of RENEW today and continue supporting our work with a monthly contribution of $25 or more!

Become a Monthly Sustainer today!

Saturday’s event started on the Merrimac ferry, north of Madison, and ventured up the hill to the International Crane Foundation to see their hot water and electric solar systems. The first hill was the second highest on the trip and it was a joy to eventually get on top. The next major stop was at the LEED Platinum Aldo Leopold Center near Baraboo and then the group took the Levee Road, Wisconsin River route on the way back towards the ferry.  Saturday’s event will be remembered by riders as being one that was warm, windy, rainy (at the end), and full of surprises.

Sunday started in the Middleton Park & Ride and quickly ventured past the new Dane County BioDigester being built just west of Middleton. Next stop was the Epic’s new Galactic Wind farm in Northern Dane County. The weather was perfect for biking: sunny, 60 degrees, and no wind. However these conditions meant the Epic system’s wind turbines blades were not spinning.  The group then stopped at a private residence that was heated by 16 solar thermal panels on a south facing roof with an incredible view.

The toughest riding part of the trip was next, up the hill to the Bleu Mont Dairy near Blue Mounds State Park.  Bleu Mont Dairy is a zero energy operation with wind, solar thermal and solar electric  providing all the power for the award winning dairy, which also supports a passive solar greenhouse and cave cheese storage.  We continued up the hill to Britington Park and then were glad to descend down to Mt. Horeb and the solar based Grumpy Troll Brew Pub. The trip ended going on the Military Ridge State Bike Trail and viewing the solar system at Standard Imaging and Middleton Alternative High School’s solar shingles.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend at the end of September, riding for a really great cause and fun adventure.  Many thanks to all who participated as riders, sponsors, supporters, logistic planners, sage wagon drivers, and renewable site owners. Special thanks to John and Mary Frantz who were able to match all of the other 161 sponsors with a generous gift.

Based on this success, RENEW plans to make the early fall bike ride an annual event. Stay tuned for details at the end of summer 2014.

If you donated $35 or more, you are now considered a member of RENEW and we are happy to have you with us. You will receive e-newsletters from us and can keep up to date via our website and blog. We have a number of events coming up around the state, so be sure to check out our events calendar.

Also, a very special thank you to our sponsors, who generously provided marketing, logistical help, donations, and snacks and support to us during our ride: